Nintendo will do whatever they want to do. And for these past 7 generations it has worked because of their legendary mascots. Nintendo has been right about one thing every generation. They have been faithful to bring out new iterations of their beloved franchises. And because of that they have built up a massive fanbase. There are not too many franchises that have been around 20 + years. And since Nintendo has probably a dozen really famous mascots that people love, fans will buy their consoles no matter what they do with their hardware just to play their franchises.
Nintendo because of their established franchises will continue to sell even if they outright reject the subscription based model. Because they have 10+ franchises now that can move consoles. Something both Sony and Microsoft do not have.
Sony while getting ready to enter their 5th generation is no where near Nintendo was when entering their 5th generation in terms of Mascot popularity. Sony used to be known for their Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil, Gran Turismo, Tomb Raider, Tekken, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, etc . But most of these ended up making their way towards their competition by their second and third generation. And while Sony's 1st party games for the most part do really well, there are no major mascots like Nintendo had when entering their 5th generation. Sony has a tendency every generation to have a super popular franchise to only abandon them or have them or to have them go multiplatform the following generation.
Whatever happened to Twisted Metal, Jet Set Moto, Syphon Filter, Little Big Planet, Killzone, Jak and Daxter, etc? The only way a company will build mascot recognition is if they continue to make new titles with those mascots. Not every single Mario game was AAA, but Nintendo never outright dropped any one of their bigger franchises (Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon, Donkey Kong, Super Smash Brothers, Kirby, etc) if the sales dropped or quality dropped.
Will this hurt Sony in the long run? As subscription based services will only grow larger and larger what will be the insentive to buy the next Sony system? Without established mega mascots like Nintendo has many people might just flock to other major streaming platforms who have all the major 3rd party games that Sony has.
Xbox, about to enter their 4th generation has kind of done a Nintendo/Sony mixed style approach. They Are trying to build franchises buy existing franchises and move into what Microsoft sees as the future for video games (subscription base/buy digital). Microsoft unlike Sony has continued to push the few franchises they have (Halo, Fable, Forza, Gears of War, Age of Empires, Flight Simulator) had since first Generation even if the sales have not always been stellar. All the while buying existing franchises (Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstine, Banjo, Battletoads, etc) And even taking a popular game and making it a franchise, Minecraft. This is only going to make the Gamepass into a cool feature into a Juggernat extremely fast.
What should Sony do? Will their lack of aggression towards Gamepass hurt them in the long run (PS5/PS6?). Remember Sega? They had more established franchises popularity to help push whatever direction they went in then Sony currently does and that didn't stop them from going third party.
Could Sony in a generation or two see the same fate as Sega if the subscription model really takes off? Remember, there is more revenue to be made than just the monthly 10/15 or whatever Gamepass costs (I dont own Gamepass since I live in China). Buying games, microtransactions, crossgame gamepass transactions, etc.
Where do you see Sony by the end of Generation 5? Sega fell, Nintendo fell, but got back up quickly. If Sony fails to move systems what happens? They have no handheld mega divice, they have no long lasting mascot. All they have for the time being is A super popular platform. But that can change very quickly as we have seen with Sega, Nintendo and even Microsoft.
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